Benjamin Franklin refused to have one of his children vaccinated against smallpox. The four-year-old boy died, and Franklin wrote later of how mistaken he was to expose him to the needless risk.

In the Internet age, with the screaming on the radio, etc., it is hard to know what to believe and who is informed and who is not.

I started to write about science and medicine at the Washington Post, in the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

I think it is true that you can eat extremely healthy food at McDonald's, and you can eat amazingly badly at Chipotle.

Flu is easily transmitted, so if you are working with sick people - who are most at risk for getting seriously ill - you ought to be vaccinated. I am not really equipped to say whether it should be the law or not.

Vaccination is a public health issue because influenza is a highly contagious disease. If you don't vaccinate your child, his or her schoolmates are much more likely to become ill. That is why some places (New York, for example) are making the vaccine mandatory for school children.

People wrap themselves in their beliefs. And they do it in such a way that you can't set them free. Not even the truth will set them free.